Tom Baker Slick, Jr. was born in 1916 in Clarion, Pennsylvania to Thomas Baker and Berenice (Frates) Slick. When Slick. was twelve, his family moved from San Antonio to Oklahoma City. In 1938 Slick earned a degree in biology from Yale University, where he was a Phi Beta Kappa. After college, he took graduate courses at Harvard and MIT as well as serving in the Navy in the Pacific and Japan.
Tom Slick, Sr., one of the most famous oil operators in the Southwest and known as the 'King of the Wildcatters' died in 1930, leaving a inheritance to his children. Tom Slick, Jr. used the inheritance to support activities in a variety of fields, including scientific research, oil drilling, cattle breeding, exploration, and his collection of modern art. Slick established a number of research organizations, including the Foundation of Applied Research (1941; now the Texas Biomedical Research Institute), the Institute of Inventive Research (1944), the Southwest Research Institute (1947); the Southwest Agricultural Institute (1957); the Mind Science Foundation (1958), and the Human Progress Foundation (1960). Slick was co-inventor of the lift-slab method of building construction and co-founder of Slick Airways. He wrote The Last Great Hope (1951) and Permanent Peace: A Check and Balance Plan (1958). As an avid adventurer and world traveler, Slick organized several expeditions to search for the Abominable Snowman or Yeti in the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal as well as expeditions in search of Bigfoot or Sasquatch in the Pacific Northwest.
On October 6, 1962, Slick and his pilot were killed in a plane crash in southwestern Montana.
Source: James R. Compton, "SLICK, THOMAS BAKER, JR.," Handbook of Texas Online - http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsl07
From the guide to the Tom Slick papers MS 361., 1938-1987, (The University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections.)
